Collaborative Research: HCC: Medium: Designing Social Companion Robots for Long-term Interaction

社交机器人有可能改善许多人的日常生活。他们可以担任儿童的家庭教师。他们可以为老年人提供日常生活任务的帮助。社交机器人还可以为那些感到孤独和孤立的人提供陪伴。尽管社交机器人有希望，但它们目前还不能在家庭或研究环境中维持积极的长期互动。 有必要进行研究，以更好地理解和设计社交机器人，以供长期使用，持续数月或数年。该项目旨在克服障碍，改善长期的人机交互。研究团队将设计帮助建立和维护与人的关系的机器人。该项目将专注于为8至10岁的儿童开发社交机器人阅读伴侣。机器人将与儿童及其家人建立联系。它将参加各种家庭活动。这些活动可能包括机器人引导的阅读、机器人照顾和机器人促进的家庭娱乐。一组不同的家庭将共同设计一个长期家庭使用的社交机器人。这项活动将在机器人设计过程中为家庭和社区发声。这项研究将促进社会机器人设计的长期互动的知识。这些进步将使社交机器人能够在日常生活中为人们提供有价值的帮助。开发社交机器人的研究人员和公司面临许多挑战。一个主要的挑战是维持与社交机器人的长期互动。这些机器人在改善学习、服务互动和帮助人类方面具有巨大的潜力。当机器人的功能失去新奇感后，用户会感到失望，并经常停止使用机器人。该研究团队将共同设计、开发和测试一款家用自主社交机器人。社交机器人的重点是建立和维护人际关系。主要目标是长期的互动，超越最初对使用新技术的兴奋。作为第一步，研究小组将进行一系列研究。这些研究将有助于了解家庭生态系统和家庭日常生活的中断。这些共同设计研究将提供一个“机器人家庭集成计划”。“这项计划将为机器人融入家庭日常生活提供所需的结构。通过了解这些例程，研究团队将设计和开发家庭机器人活动。这些活动可能包括机器人引导的阅读、机器人照顾和机器人促进的家庭娱乐。社交机器人的设计将利用社交功能，使机器人成功地融入现有的家庭日常生活。在个人活动测试之后，集成将发生在单个自主机器人中。这项研究的最后阶段将在家庭中测试自主社交机器人伴侣。重点将放在家庭机器人的人际关系上，以便长期使用和接受。该机器人的家庭现场部署将持续六个月。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Social robots have the potential to improve the everyday lives of many people. They may serve as tutors for children. They could provide help for older adults with daily living tasks. Social robots may also provide companionship for those who feel lonely and isolated. Despite the promise of social robots, they are not currently capable of sustaining positive long-term interactions in the home or in research settings. There is a need for research to better understand and design social robots for long-term use lasting months or years. This project seeks to overcome barriers and improve long-term human-robot interactions. The research team will design robots that help to build and maintain relationships with people. The project will focus on the development of a social robot reading companion for children aged 8 to 10. The robot will build connections with children and their families. It will take part in a variety of family activities. These activities may include robot-guided reading, robot caretaking, and robot-facilitated family recreation. A diverse set of families will co-design a social robot for long-term home use. This activity will give a voice to families and communities in the robot design process. This research will advance the knowledge of social robot design for long-term interactions. These advancements will enable social robots to provide valuable help to people in their daily lives.Researchers and companies who develop social robots face many challenges. A primary challenge is sustaining long-term interactions with social robots. These robots have great potential to improve learning, service interactions, and help people. Users become disappointed after the novelty wears off with the capabilities of robots and often stop using the robots. The research team will co-design, develop, and test an autonomous social robot for home use. The focus of the social robot is on building and maintaining inter-personal relationships. The primary goal is on long-term interactions that move beyond initial excitement around the use of novel technology. As a first step, the research team will perform a series of studies. The studies will help to understand the family ecosystem and disruptions to family routines. These co-design studies will provide a "robot-family integration plan." This plan will provide the needed structure for robot integration into family routines. By understanding these routines, the research team will design and develop family-robot activities. These activities may include robot-guided reading, robot caretaking, and robot-facilitated family recreation. The social robot design will leverage social affordances that allow for a successful robot integration into existing family routines. After individual activity testing, integration will occur into a single autonomous robot. The final phase of this research will test an autonomous social robot companion in homes. The focus will be on family-robot inter-personal connections for long-term use and acceptance. The in-home field deployments of the robot will be up to six months in duration.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.